Support Cityfolk While You Shop

This post originally appeared on December 26, 2008.

Sounds too good to be true, I know! But luckily for us, this deal's on the up and up. Amazon.com and Dorothy Lane Market will give Cityfolk a percentage of what you spend, no matter what or when you buy.

For Amazon.com, simply click this link, and shop! It's not limited to recordings or artists we feature here at Inside Cityfolk; it can be anything at all. In most cases, when you see a link from this blog to a specific book or recording, that takes you to Amazon's site. Or start your shopping from the search box on the right side of the screen. Just that easy!

At Dorothy Lane Market, you just need to fill out this form at the start of the year, which designates Cityfolk as the charity you'd like to support through their Good Neighbor program. The participating charities are in alphabetical order, so we're easy to find. Once you've spent $250 there, a percentage of your purchase totals will be designated for Cityfolk.

Whether you support Cityfolk by buying a ticket, becoming a member, buying a beer at the Cityfolk Festival or shopping at Amazon or DLM--or all the of the above--we thank you!

YouTube Spotlight: Del McCoury Band and Radio Ramblers

Del McCoury Band
Del McCoury has been a part of the bluegrass scene for decades, and he's still going strong. This live performance from early 2008 proves the point.




Joe Mullins and the Radio Ramblers
Bluegrass lovers in this part of the country are sure to be familiar with Joe Mullins -- or at least his voice, on WBZI-FM. He and his band the Radio Ramblers will open for Del McCoury at Cityfolk's annual winter bluegrass concert on Saturday, January 23.

Have You Heard?

Cumbia is evolving, and exploding in popularity from Mexico to Argentina. Listen to this profile of Bomba Estereo on NPR to understand why.

Prepare to be impressed by some four-handed guitar playing. Yes, four hands on ONE guitar. At the 2009 Brazilian Music Institute in Gainesville, Florida CECILIA SIQUEIRA (Uruguay) and FERNANDO LIMA (Brasil) performed Tico Tico no Fuba (Zequinha de Abreu).

Music collected by the late Alan Lomax brings the sound of Haiti to life. Recordings that Lomax made decades ago are now being released as a 10-disc box set, along with a journal and other artifacts from his trip to Haiti. Listen as NPR host Michel Martin speaks with Gage Averill, an ethnomusicologist and a professor of at the University of Toronto, about the project.

The Lomax box set made the Los Angeles Times' Top 10 World Music Albums list this year. So did Oumou Sangare, Vieux Farka Toure and Le Vent du Nord!

Celtic music fans are probably familiar with Irish musician and folklorist Mick Moloney, who just released a CD which celebrates the musical collaboration of the Irish and Jewish populations in New York that peaked between 1880 and 1920. He returns to speak with Fresh Air host Terry Gross about the songs that stemmed from the work of those songwriters and performers of vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley, an area around 28th and Broadway where many music publishing houses were located.

YouTube Favorites from Doug Smith

Galax 2009 Wayne Henderson-Guitar Competion

The Galax Old Time Fiddler’s Convention is one of the biggest gatherings of old time and bluegrass musicians anywhere. In the first week of August thousands of musicians camp in Felts Park in Galax, Virginia. Wayne Henderson, who has performed in Dayton in the Masters of the Steel String Guitar Tour, as well as the Cityfolk Festival, is a local favorite in Galax and has won many ribbons there.




Doc Watson and Earl Scruggs

I was reminded of this video by Jeff Au Hoy, who performed in the 2008 Cityfolk Festival with Bobby Ingano. This informal session was captured at the Watson farm, before Merle's accident. We are fortunate to live in the age of Doc Watson.

The Traditional Arts Enhance Schools and Communities, Not Just in Dayton

A recent article by Paulette Beete in NEA Arts, the quarterly magazine of the National Endowment for the Arts, highlighted an innovative charter school in Philadelphia where the folk and traditional arts are at the core of the curriculum. The Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School (FACTS) is a stunning example of how the traditional arts can immensely enhance the health and vitality of a school community. In many ways, FACTS is doing just what Cityfolk does through its Culture Builds Community (CBC) program, but on an even grander scale, as the traditional arts are weaved into every facet of FACTS school as a core value and tool.

Like many of our Dayton neighborhoods, FACTS is situated in a diverse community that is home to immigrants from all over the world. Parents and members of these communities often feel alienated from the schools, even when principals and teachers intend to create a welcoming environment, due to the language differences and other cultural barriers that exist. Hence, it is paramount that culture be viewed and treated as an asset in these schools. Beete explains, “In communities of new immigrants, there is often a disconnect between what young people experience in school and what they experience at home. FACTS is a place where this gap is bridged, and family traditions do not have to be left outside school walls.”

Similarly, Cityfolk’s CBC program is helping Dayton Public Schools’ five Neighborhood School Centers utilize the traditional arts and culture to build bridges between the school and its surrounding community by bringing in master artists who reflect the cultural traditions of people within the school community. Beete quotes a parent from FACTS who eloquently explains what it does for the community when they see their traditions celebrated in the school, “It says…‘We respect where you come from – the way your family prays, cooks, the way you come together and define community: We honor these traditions that have sustained your family for hundreds of years.’”

Beete also explains how the folk and traditional arts emphasize the myriad of ways that children learn, and “gives them so many more avenues in which to grow.” This boosts self-esteem and confidence in kids who might be struggling with the traditional classroom setting and curriculum. And by respecting, celebrating and teaching through aspects of culture that are a part of the students’ home-lives, we are creating an environment where youth can develop a well-rounded sense of identity.

FACTS is also similar to Cityfolk’s CBC program in that both not only bring in master artists from outside the community, but also work with many local artists and cultural experts from within the community. This is an important facet of the CBC program; however it often poses a challenge. As Beete points out, “often, the master artists in the community are simply not visible to the school.” Hence, it requires a real investment in community organizing to uncover the incredible talent and depth of cultural knowledge living close at hand. One thing we know for sure is that these local gems exist in every community, especially among immigrant peoples where the arts traditionally serve an integral role in every day life.

Investing in the cultural capital of our school communities is of vital importance. As Beete states, “The community is always a part of the school. If there is violence in the community, then there’s violence in the school. If there’s poverty in the community, then there’s poverty in the school. But when you start to take positive aspects of the community and weave them into the school, it changes the spirit of what could happen.” This not only improves education and the environment within the school; as barriers break down and attitudes toward one another improve within the school walls, these changes reverberate into our communities.

In many people’s eyes Dayton is a “dying city.” However, we at Cityfolk are aware that the immigrants here tend to see Dayton as a place of opportunity. It is high time our City begin to recognize that, in many ways, the future vitality of our city rests in the hands of these new immigrant populations. Furthermore, as we look towards building a prosperous future in Dayton, Ohio, it is essential that we value the cultures these new comers carry with them as important community assets. FACTS school in Philadelphia highlights many of the reasons why Cityfolk’s Culture Builds Community is such a valuable program in Dayton’s diverse communities. It can also serve as a model to help us envision where we should head as we develop and deepen our community outreach work.

Remember Cityfolk This Holiday Season!

In the hustle and bustle of the season, don't forget to put Cityfolk membership on your holiday shopping list! We bring the best bluegrass, Celtic, Jazz, roots, and world music to you every year. In these challenging times, your contribution to Cityfolk by the end of the year will ensure that we will continue to present a great Season of Events, along with the highlight of the summer in Dayton, the 2010 Cityfolk Festival! Remember too that your contribution to Cityfolk is tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. Call the Cityfolk office if you have questions, or need documentation for tax purposes.

There is great merchandise available from Cityfolk for holiday shopping too! If you've got a music lover on your list, or just want to impress someone with how "cool" you are, visit the Cityfolk Shoppe and take a look around. As a special offer to you, our email readers,if you join Cityfolk at the Family ($50) level or above by December 31, we'll be happy to send you a FREE Cityfolk hoodie ($30 value) as a thank you for your membership. Contact Tom or Shelley at the Cityfolk office (937-223-3655) to order your special holiday premium soon! Hurry, supplies of this brand new item are limited!

Thank you to all Cityfolk members and supporters and we look forward to a great year in 2010!

Festival photo by Andy Snow.

Bluegrass Patriarch Del McCoury

Big Mon worked in mysterious ways. Bill Monroe, the “Father of Bluegrass,” hired a young banjo player named Del McCoury in 1963 to play in his band, the Blue Grass Boys. It took McCoury a couple of months to make it to Nashville for the job, however, and when he arrived, he found that Monroe had just hired another young banjo player, Bill Keith. (Photo L to R: Bill Monroe, Joe Stuart, Bill Keith, Del McCoury (1963). Photo by Jim Peva.)

Rather than send the disappointed McCoury home, Monroe asked him if he’d done any singing and just like that, Monroe had another great lead singer, in a line that reached back to Clyde Moody and Lester Flatt in the 1940s. If the phrase “high lonesome sound” hadn’t already been coined to describe the singing of Bill Monroe, it would surely have come up in the case of Del McCoury.

Del McCoury has led his own bluegrass band since 1967 and is the most celebrated bluegrass singer of his generation. He has won four Male Vocalist of the Year awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association and an unprecedented nine Entertainer of the Year awards at the head of the Del McCoury Band. Throw in the band’s other IBMA awards—Instrumental Group of the Year (two), Album of the Year (two), Song of the Year, Instrumental Album of the Year and 13 individual Instrumentalist of the Year awards—and you’ll get a sense of the power of the Del McCoury Band.

Lots of ambitious bluegrass bands have tinkered with the music trying to reach more fans, but the Del McCoury Band has pulled off a much more difficult feat: “crossing over” without changing the basic sound of bluegrass as played by Bill Monroe. The band plays it high, hard and fast and has introduced bluegrass to millions through touring with Phish, playing at Bonnaroo and other huge rock festivals and recording with country-rocker Steve Earle.

Where the Del McCoury Band embraces the modern is in its material. Some of the band’s biggest hits have come from outside bluegrass, from Richard Thompson (“1952 Vincent Black Lightning”) and Robert Cray (“Smoking Gun”) to Tom Petty (“Love is a Long Road”) and the Lovin’ Spoonful (“Nashville Cats”).

In the final analysis, what makes Del McCoury so special is that he’s stuck to his guns for 50 years and enjoyed massive success by not changing. Country star Vince Gill (a former bluegrass picker, by the way) speaks to that when he says, “What I most admire about Del is that he’s one of the last patriarchs that really plays the music in its authentic way. And even though he’s willing to bend a little bit, to be out there playing at jam band festivals and things like that, it doesn’t sound like what the new people do with bluegrass. He’s done a great job of bringing new songs into the fold, but when he sings them they sound like 1959 or 1962 again. It still has the element of his voice, and the authenticity of it never goes away, never changes.”

Hear that unchanging authenticity at the Dayton Masonic Center on Saturday, January 23. Joe Mullins and the Radio Ramblers will open the show.

Cityfolk's 2009 Grammy Connections

Nominations for the 2009 Grammys were recently announced, and as usual, some Cityfolk favorites were nominated. Who are you rooting for?

Best Jazz Vocal Album

Luciana Souza, Tide

Best Improvised Jazz Solo

Villa Palmeras
Miguel Zenón, soloist
Track from: Esta Plena

Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Solo or Group

Quartet Live
Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, Steve Swallow & Antonio Sanchez

Best Latin Jazz Album

Esta Plena
Miguel Zenón

Best Tropical Latin Album

Bach In Havana
Tiempo Libre

Best Bluegrass Album

Could We Get Any Closer?
Jim Lauderdale

Destination Life
Rhonda Vincent

Best Traditional Blues Album

Stomp! The Blues Tonight
Duke Robillard

Best Contemporary Blues Album

The Truth According To Ruthie Foster
Ruthie Foster

Live: Hope At The Hideout
Mavis Staples

Best Traditional Folk Album

Naked With Friends
Maura O'Connell

Best Hawaiian Music Album

He Nani
Tia Carrere & Daniel Ho

Masters Of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar, Volume 2 (Various Artists)
Daniel Ho, George Kahumoku, Jr., Paul Konwiser & Wayne Wong, producers

Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album

Alligator Purse
Beausoleil Avec Michael Doucet

Best Traditional World Music Album

Ancient Sounds
Rahim Alhaj And Amjad Ali Khan

Double Play
Liz Carroll & John Doyle

Douga Mansa
Mamadou Diabate

Best Contemporary World Music Album

Throw Down Your Heart: Tales From The Acoustic Planet, Vol. 3 — Africa Sessions
Béla Fleck

Seya
Oumou Sangare

Best Musical Album for Children

Banjo To Beatbox
Cathy (Fink) & Marcy (Marxer) With Special Guest Christylez Bacon

Best Classical Crossover Album

The Melody Of Rhythm
Leonard Slatkin, conductor; Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain & Edgar Meyer (Detroit Symphony Orchestra)

Yo-Yo Ma & Friends: Songs Of Joy And Peace
Yo-Yo Ma (Odair Assad, Sergio Assad, Chris Botti, Dave Brubeck, Matt Brubeck, John Clayton, Paquito d'Rivera, Renée Fleming, Diana Krall, Alison Krauss, Natalie McMaster, Edgar Meyer, Cristina Pato, Joshua Redman, Jake Shimabukuro, Silk Road Ensemble, James Taylor, Chris Thile, Wu Tong, Alon Yavnai & Amelia Zirin-Brown)

The Boxed Set, a Holiday Tradition: Part Two

If you're considering reading Terry Teachout's new biography, Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, there could be no better accompaniment for tracking his early years than JSP's budget 4-disc set, The Hot Fives & Sevens. These are the sides that changed the face of music forever, beginning in the mid-twenties. Astounding, ear-popping, cornet playing on classics like 'Wild Man Blues" and "Muskrat Ramble" (he was the first true virtuoso of jazz), the invention of jazz singing on "Heebie Jeebies", its all here, powered by Armstrong's sheer force of personality. He would quickly morph into one of the most popular entertainers in the world. Immaculately restored by John R.T. Davies, this is music that defies era and categorization and is a testament to the pure joy of music making.

At the beginning of the single artist/career overview box set boom in the 1980s was Biograph. It still stands as one of the best collections of Bob Dylan music ever assembled and could be an ideal gift for someone who may possess a greatest hits CD or even a handful of other Dylan titles. It's the sequencing that makes Biograph unique. Classics from the canon such as "Like A Rolling Stone", "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" and "I Want You" are here but they're seamlessly integrated with live nuggets, obscure album tracks and other superb songs that officially appeared here for the first time like "I'll Keep It With Mine." It neatly sweeps his career from the early 60s to the mid 80s and is surprisingly affordable.

You've read a lot about King Records in this blog with this year's publication of King of the Queen City: The Story of King Records (Music in American Life), written by our own Jon Hartley Fox. If you want to listen to what part of the fuss was/is about regarding the Cincinnati-based independent record label, The King R&B Box Set is your ticket. This box rolls up a deep bounty from the label's blues and R&B side, everything from instrumentals like organist Bill Doggett's chugging "Honky Tonk" and Freddie King's fierce guitar workout "San-Ho-Zay", to superb singing from Roy Brown, Wynonie Harris, Little Willie John and the underappreciated Lula Reed.

Culture Builds Community at Kiser NSC

by Tierra Blackwell, CBC Intern

It was exciting planning and preparing for Culture Builds Community (CBC)’s most recent community celebration, entitled “Culture Builds Community” located (this time) at Kiser Neighborhood School Center (NSC). The festivities took place on Tuesday, November 10, and if you did not attend, you truly missed a wonderful night of fun for the entire family.

This multicultural celebration was the peak of the Son de Madera residency from November 7-12. For the two days prior to the community celebration, the members of this Mexican band had been in Kiser hosting student workshops, teaching the kids about their instruments, songs, and dances from their traditional son jarocho music style. This seemed to be an experience that not only the children, but the school faculty and staff, deeply enjoyed.

Being that this was the first residency and community celebration extended to the Old North Dayton area, there had been much planning involved in trying to establish and build upon new relationships in this area. The decision to make the Tuesday evening celebration one of a multicultural aspect allowed for us to extend an invitation to the various cultural clubs and ethnic restaurants of the area to participate in the activities and to share their culture with the residents of that area. What I learned from reaching out to local organizations such as the American Czechoslovakian, German, and Polish clubs, was that (as in most cases) there is an on-going need to expose traditional cultural roots to the younger generations in order to instill awareness and pride. Since these goals are inclusive our CBC’s vision, linking our vision and building connections just made sense!

The Culture Builds Community event collaborated with Kiser’s monthly family night and opened with a large community potluck. What better way to share cultures than through the taste of delicious food! The foods featured were representative of Mexican, Italian, American, Czech, and German ethnic dishes donated by a number of restaurants and community members. Even the Kiser middle school students in the afterschool program joined in by cooking a large portion of homemade tacos and skillet corn.

Activities led by the Hispanic Catholic community followed the potluck and included face painting, mask decorating, and displays educating the community of the Hispanic holiday, Day of the Dead. The children, especially, had a blast! The Son de Madera concert began as festivities continued, along with intermission dance performances by the American Czechoslovakian club and a Hispanic youth dancing group. The festivities ended with raffling free turkey dinners provided through the afterschool program and artwork that had been displayed throughout the night. The school’s gymnasium was full of life, energy and music. It was an exciting way to expand the CBC program and bring community folks together on one accord!